Fire Destroys, Words Ignite | Yemeni-British Spoken Word Poet "Sanasiino" writes about Grenfell Tower Fire

Sanasiino | Yemeni-British Spoken Word Poet

I've known of British-Yemeni spoken word poet "Sanasiino" for over 8 years now. Her passion & incredible poetry truly are inspiring. My favorite rapper "Lowkey" has always collaborated & spoke of her. They did this track.

On June 14th, 2017, a huge fire happened at GRENFELL TOWER , North Kensington in London. Many casualties, dead, victims of a corrupt system..so Sana used what she's good at to reflect her thoughts about this incident to inspire, to help.. She did a poem and it's incredible..

Grenfell Tower, London

I asked her about the reasons of why she did the poem, her reply was:

"To this day I can say, hand on heart, no event of this scale has affected me as much as the Grenfell tower blaze has. I'm not too sure why this is, but I believe it is due to the fact that this was a complete and utter negligence and irresponsibility on behalf of the council toward people that were of a lower class to those across the road from them in Kensington. 

This was an absolute tragedy and a catastrophic blunder that could have been avoided had the authorities heeded the calls of many residents in the tower who warned them of the risks within the block. I grew up in the west London area, about fifteen mins way from Grenfell and although I did not know anyone in the block, this was very close to home. My family and I lived in a tower of that size for more than fifteen years and to look into the charred windows of grenfell and see the face of my family in there is absolutely daunting. Every missing persons poster I see at the site of grenfell, although they are complete strangers to me, feels like a lost loved one, truly. It pains me to look at their faces and to think of their last moments on earth; what were they thinking, what were they feeling, did they cry, were they scared? These are all thoughts that have haunted me and many people around me for more than a month. 

Anyone familiar with my work can confirm I very rarely post or publish new spoken word pieces. As a creative I personally don't like to force myself to write anything in fear of it not coming across as genuine. The last I uploaded anything was more than a year and a half ago. But when I saw grenfell ablaze, something ignited deep inside me and I found myself spilling emotions onto a page for the first time in a very long time. There was no thought involved, i picked up a pen and let my heart say what it needed to say and this is the result of some 20-30mins of writing. I am beyond grateful for the response I've received for this and I am humbled and honoured that many were able to resonate with these words. 

It does absolutely nothing to rectify what has happened but I believe we as individuals have a duty to personally contribute when such tragedies unfold. For many, this was donating aid. For others, this was counseling survivors. As a writer, this was my contribution to keep Grenfell in the headlines."

CHECK OUT THE POEM BELOW